Navigation - 4L at Logan -

I'm still scratching my head about this one.

I would be very happy to hear ideas on approaching that runway.

4L at Logan was my first experience with this kind of beast.

I'm going to hold off on the details. I'm not being lazy - I just don't want to vector you off thinking about my shortcomings. I would like to hear how an experienced pilot (Sim or real) would approach and land on that runway.

So if you have a few minutes, and are willing to help, it would be better if you took your own shot at it. Then let's talk.

And btw, if you don't have any issues with it, as in "wtf is that guy bitchin' about," that is a legit data point for me. Then I will know I have further to go than I thought I did. :-)

Thanks in advance.

AFD (Airport Facility Directroy) doesn't say anything specific about RWY 4L but it does mention "Numerous cranes on and invof arpt".

In the simulator, I would come in straight if VFR or fly a standard traffic pattern depending on the arrival direction. Also if you are VFR in a small GA plane, you can power idle abeam the numbers 4L and slip it in for a landing, that is fun. If IFR, I could not find any IAP plates for Runway 4L.

4L at Logan was my first experience with this kind of beast.

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, I don't have a sim installed on my PC at the moment. So can't see what scary beast lurks there!!

Logan 4L......is that the one that has ship-loading cranes in the approach?

Hi Mr. Z, it has giant giraffe monsters guarding the approach, for sure. I suppose they could be used to load ships. :-)

Yes sir, that is the place.

AFD (Airport Facility Directroy) doesn't say anything specific about RWY 4L but it does mention "Numerous cranes on and invof arpt".

 

In the simulator, I would come in straight if VFR or fly a standard traffic pattern depending on the arrival direction. Also if you are VFR in a small GA plane, you can power idle abeam the numbers 4L and slip it in for a landing, that is fun. If IFR, I could not find any IAP plates for Runway 4L.

 

There are cranes there. I read the same advisory you attached. Actually what I read also had text in it regarding some dive bomber angle you needed to be prepared for ( 50:1 ratio ) but it was in regard to tall ships in the channel. IMO, one could make a case that the advisory radically understates the the crane hazard.

So, yeah, the cranes were no fun, but not the part of the exercise that really bothered me. I was bothered worse (more perplexed) by the fact there was not a way to locate or line up on that runway without flying up there, look out the window, and as you said fly a basic pattern until you could figure something out. However that is not what I did.

Tower radios are limited to about 25 miles. Stated another way, they don't show up in the "closest airports" list until you are in that range. Sure, I would like to have talked to them 100 miles out. Is there a way to do that in FSX ? I dunno. It takes me 40 miles to get the plane transitioned. I was planning on getting 4R. (ILS runway)

So with 20 miles to go.... and this ATC person is not changing their mind. I think unscheduled, non-commercial VFR pop ups get to go fight the cranes --

I'm going to ride down 4R's slope and jump off ? Decided no. So what else? Logan has a VOR sitting over in the middle of no place and doesn't line up on anything but at least it is a fix. I chose that. I took a radial that would drag me across the end of 4L and I would just hope to see the runway in time to get off the radial and turn on to the runway. That would have worked, had it not also dragged me into those giant giraffe monsters. Keeping in mind this plane is configured for landing at this point, not juking around like a fighter plane.

It was too late to go over them, so I went around them. The landing was ugly but FSX did not deem it to be a crash. (I certainly did)

If I ever get in a mess like that again, I will call a go-around on myself and "cancel landing intention" once I'm in the clear. FSX does not have a way to call a go around on yourself. I'll just do it anyway.

Lessons learned: If you want predictable and deterministic results, Fly IFR in to big busy airports.

Lamentations of a newbie. I love this stuff.

I suppose, that since I did this and lived to tell it:

Then surely I can handle these guys:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]220914[/ATTACH]

Tea and biscuits with the chief pilot afterwards?

What's the engine out plan?

There are cranes there. I read the same advisory you attached.

OMG, that looks just like a giraffe. Poping out of the cloud with some haze and seeing that during dusk or dawn!

OMG, that looks just like a giraffe. Poping out of the cloud with some haze and seeing that during dusk or dawn!

Even in stark sunshine ... It seemed so ridiculous to me that they would be there, and looking as they do.... I honestly thought the "game" put them there to "teach" me something. Like if you land somewhere and don't call first they plop an airplane down on the runway in front of you... " that'll learn ye !" But nope. They are really there.

It turns out they are not as bad as they look. It's only about 500 ft. tall. I couldn't find a chart with that obstruction so I flew the 4R ILS hoping to capture the altimeter reading as I went by them. Turns out the 4R ILS glide puts you well below the top of the thing as you go by it. Plan B - I took off on that runway --toward them explicitly aiming at the top of the giraffe's head.

I have taken this on as a personal challenge. It's prolly a skill worth learning. Right now I am so transfixed on the giraffe that I'm not framing up the runway til its too late. I have a theory or two. We shall see.

It would make a good multi-user thing to do. And of course somebody is gonna try to go between them. I might even try that.

A landing at Boston 22R that shows clearly the end of runway 4L, awesome.